India will bring back more of its citizens from Oman as part of the repatriation mission under the ‘Vande Bharat’ initiative.
This will be the second such flight from Oman which is scheduled to take off on Tuesday.
Two flights carrying 362 people from Oman and Kuwait had reached Kochi in Kerala on May 9. The passengers arrived on two Air India Express flights.
There were eight infants in the flights, the airport authorities said.
The ‘Vande Bharat’ mission is considered one of the largest expatriation exercise run by any country during the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.
These flights are being operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express since May 7. Air India is operating the bulk of the flights (42) and the remaining – 24 – are being operated by AI Express.
The government of India is targeting to repatriate 14,800 Indians from 12 countries including USA, UK Bangladesh, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Philippines, UAE and Malaysia.
In the first phase of the evacuation, a total number of 27 flights are bringing bring back Indians from the Gulf region. This included 11 flights from the United Arab Emirates, five from Saudi Arab, five from Kuwait, and two each from Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.
From the neighbourhood, seven flights are bringing back Indians from Bangladesh carrying passengers bound for Srinagar, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
Similarly, 14 flights will evacuate stranded Indians from South-East Asia. Of these flights, five each are from Singapore and the Philippines and four from Malaysia.
